


Back From The Grave

by Smokeycut



Series: DCEU Fics [2]
Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC Extended Universe, DCEU
Genre: Fix It Fic, Mercy deserved better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 21:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15671400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeycut/pseuds/Smokeycut
Summary: The last thing that Mercy Graves remembered was being murdered in a fiery explosion. But when she wakes up again, years later and far away from the capitol, she begins to understand her new purpose in life.





	Back From The Grave

The air was hot and she felt _cold_.

Her eyes opened suddenly as she jolted awake, as though she had just leapt from a nightmare. Everything was dark, and her eyes were having trouble adjusting without her glasses. She felt around, and realized that she was in a pod of some sort. Warm metal walls, still wet from the steam that was filling the air. And yet Mercy still felt cold. When she reached forward, she realized that the front of the pod was open, and that the hot air was quickly leaving her. She tried to climb out of the tube, but her legs were too weak to support her. She collapsed under her own weight and fell forward, but someone was there to catch her.

Lex. It was Lex, she realized when she heard him grunt from the effort of supporting her. That little annoyed cough was a sound she had heard a thousand times. He stroked her head gently, even brushed the hair out of her face as she learned how to stand on her own again. Once she was standing, albeit on shaky feet, he slid a pair of thick-rimmed glasses onto her face. She smiled weakly at the gesture. Her smile only grew wider when he took off his suit jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

But then she got a flash of a memory. Her last memory, from before she woke up in that steel pod. She was at the hearing, waiting for Lex to arrive. He had a reserved seat right next to her’s.

And then there had been an explosion.

Mercy shook her head in confusion, and her breathing began to quicken. She was hyperventilating, and thoughts began racing in her head. She wondered what, and how, and why, and _who_ , and- and-

“Mercy!” Lex snapped, bringing her out of it. She looked at his figure in the dark. She was still shaking, still confused and scared, but she began to understand.

It must have been the alien. He had been there too, hadn’t he? And she knew the stats on him. She and Lex had gone over them a thousand times together, in preparation for his inevitable betrayal of humanity. X-Ray vision could have shown him where the building’s gas line was. A burst of heat vision would light the place up in an instant. Invulnerability ensured that he would be the sole survivor. And Lex… Lex must have been running late. Or he had figured it out, and this… This was his plan to save her. Whatever this was.

“What happened?” Mercy asked quietly.

“Glorious resurrection, my dear,” Lex told her with a smirk. “Took me a few tries, but I cracked the code. And now look at you. Hoo boy, you really haven’t changed a day, Mercy!”

She smiled at the joke, though she didn’t quite get it just yet. Resurrection? So she had…

“I… _died_?”

“Yes. Only a smidge. Besides, besides, you’re fine now. And soon enough, you’ll be _better_ than fine,” he assured her. He paused, then reached out with an open hand and caressed Mercy’s cheek, cupping it softly. He smiled at her. One of his rare genuine smiles, she was sure of that. She had so many more questions for him, but those could wait. All that mattered then was that Lex had saved her.

And then he stuck a needle in her neck. Her vision blurred, and everything was quickly swamped in black. A black that she couldn’t see, or hear, or even think through.

********************

Mercy woke once more. This time, she was laying on a cold, hard medical examination table. Her body was covered by a thing, scratchy green hospital gown. She could see clearly, thanks in part to the fact that _this_ room had proper lighting. She sat up slowly, and felt around a bit. The fingers of her right hand brushed against her glasses, which were folded up beside her on the table. She put them on, but soon realized that they made no difference in her vision.

She looked down at herself, and furrowed her brow. Everything looked different. She like was seeing the world in high definition. Each and every fiber on her hospital gown was clear to her, and the smallest of scratches on the wall stood out like a sore thumb. There was a constant thrumming, deep in the center of her chest. She flexed her right arm ever so slightly, and it…

_It opened_. False flesh separated at the seams, and then panels of skin, or metal as it turned out, shifted around, then pulled back, exposing a trio of steel spikes. There was a crackle in the air around her arm, and small strands of blue-green energy wove together between the spikes. She stared in silent awe at what she had become. With another small flex, the energy cannon collapsed back into the form of her arm, completely indistinguishable from the real thing. She wiggled her fingers just to be sure.

“I-I’m… I’m a cyborg?” Mercy asked aloud. She looked at Lex, her eyes begging for an answer, just the smallest of explanations as to _why_.

“Phase three of bringing you back,” he said in a low, serious voice, while peeling off a pair of bloody latex gloves and dropping them in a trash can nearby. “Step one; collect Mercy’s genetic material. Step two; create a successful clone of Mercy. Step three… Cyborg.”

Mercy looked down at herself once again. For a second time, she willed her right arm to open, to turn into that energy cannon. Then she did the same to her left arm. She marveled at the devices with equal parts fascination and horror. Parts of her were gone. Gone and never coming back. She looked at Lex and saw him beaming at her with pride.

“You made me a tin woman?”

“Titanium alloy, actually. Plus, a laser defense system based on Kryptonian weaponry, cybernetic eyes, and a kryptonite core.” Lex pointed out each feature of Mercy’s new form as he spoke. “Lucky me, I managed to find another hunk of the good green stuff in the Congo.”

“Why? Why did you _do_ this to me?” She asked, still desperate to understand the purpose behind it all. If she could still cry, she would be.

“...Because you’re a good assistant,” Luthor claimed, glancing to the side and clearing his throat. “And I still need a bodyguard. Now more than ever, actually. I tried to get Deathstroke to do it, but he’s really more of a supervillain type. Although… I suppose that now, so are _you_.”

“How much of me is still… Still human?” she asked. She shifted her arms back to normal and pushed herself off of the exam table, onto her feet. Unlike the last time she woke up in Lex’s lab, she stood on perfectly stable feet.

“I’d say about twenty percent, give or take,” Lex said. “How do you feel?”

“Scared,” Mercy admitted. But then she thought for a moment more. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then looked at Lex with determination written across her face. “But also strong.”

“Strong is good,” Lex said with a grin. “Strong in the goal. I _need_ you to be strong for me, Mercy. If my plans are to succeed, if I’m to save this world from those _freaks_ out there… I’ll need you to be the strongest you can _possibly_ be.”

“Even if I’m a freak too?”

She looked at him, and he saw the lingering fear in her dark eyes. He sighed, and then brushed his fingers along her cheek gently.

“Mercy me, not at all. You’re _far_ from a freak. In fact… You’re more beautiful than everbefore,” he told her. And in the way he said it, she couldn’t help but believe him.

“Now, any more questions? Or shall we adjourn to my room for the evening?” Lex asked. “Ah, and if you’re worried about your things, worry not! I had some people move them all to my new place in preparation for your rebirth.”

“Just one question,” Mercy said, before cracking a small, mischievous grin. “What happened to your hair?”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I ended up writing two resurrection fics in a row, I guess? But hey, I've got a thing for female villains, and Mercy got shafted pretty bad in BvS, so here we are. I don't know for sure if I'll put her in any future DCEU fics of mine, but regardless, I consider this canon to all of my future DCEU works. Either way, Mercy/Metallo is a headcanon that I just had to write out as soon as I came up with it.
> 
> I also wanted to stay ambiguous on Lex and Mercy's relationship, which I feel is in line with how it was presented in the movie. Does he just see her as a pawn to manipulate? Does he genuinely care about her to some extent? Who knows.


End file.
